SAN DIEGO – Both sides had to wade through a sea of zeros before Thursday's series opener was decided. The pitching duel featured stellar starts from both Point Loma's Garrett Irvin and ART U's senior left-hander Alex Fernandez. Despite both hurlers reaching the ninth, neither pitcher received a decision as it took 11 innings to for PLNU to edge the Urban Knights by the score of 1-0.
 
Fernandez was dealing from the get-go: in his first four innings of work, he only allowed one hit, struck out two batters, allowed no walks, and only needed 47 pitches to that point. The Napa, Calif. native tossed a total of 8.1 innings, giving up just four hits and one walk before being replaced in the ninth inning with the potential winning run at second base. At that point, senior righty Chris Rost took over and escaped the jam, inducing a groundout and a strikeout swinging. In fact, that strikeout to end the ninth sparked a string of five-consecutive punchouts. He only ran into trouble in the 11th when a Sea Lion reached on an error with one out. After a single advanced the runner to third, Point Loma's Tyler Flores gave PLNU the win with a game-ending single to right field to score the runner, despite it counting as unearned in Rost's final line score.
 
Academy of Art had several opportunities in the later innings, but was unable to capitalize. For example, in the ninth frame, junior infielder Elijah Smith got on-base with a two-out single through the right side. He eventually moved to third after an errant pickoff attempt and a wild pitch, but was ultimately stranded when senior infielder Taylor Martin was set down on strikes. Two innings later, senior outfielder Izac Bauer delivered his second hit of the game when he led off the 11th-inning with an infield single. He eventually moved to second on a wild pitch, but Knights were unable to bring him home.
 
Now trailing 1-0 in the series, ART U holds an overall record of 18-16 and a conference-mark of 13-12. Both sides will be back at it on Friday for the second installment of the four-game set at Carroll B. Land Stadium. First pitch is set for 3:00 p.m. and you can find Point Loma's broadcast and live stats here.